At the end of last year, Svenska Rymdaktiebolaget entered into an agreement with Harvard researchers in the USA for a balloon experiment at Esrange in Kiruna in June.
The researchers want to test their equipment in Kiruna, to inject the particles into the stratosphere at a later time, and investigate how they reflect sunlight.
- This project must be stopped.
We do not approve of using Sami territory to test and legitimize a technology that we are completely against, says Åsa Larsson-Blind, vice chairman of the Sami Council, which organizes Sami organizations in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.
- It is a dangerous technology, which runs counter to our view of the environment and how we handle climate change.
We must go back now and show respect for nature, not treat it like a machine, says Åsa Larsson-Blind.
The Scopex project is based on ideas around a technology called solar geoengineering: large-scale deliberate manipulation of the environment to try to counteract global warming and climate change.
"A very dangerous project"
Opposition to experiments and research on this type of large-scale climate manipulation has been going on for over 25 years, against various geoengineering projects.
Eleven Swedish and international environmental organizations have already protested against the experiment in Kiruna in a letter.
- We see this as a very dangerous project in the long run that should not be implemented.
It is a way of tinkering with the atmosphere that we do not know what consequences it can have.
Since the state-owned Rymdaktiebolaget is involved, Sweden legitimizes a controversial technology, which risks being normalized and gaining some recognition, says Kristina Östman at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
Svenska Rymdaktiebolaget (SSC) tells SVT they have taken note of the criticism and begins a discussion with various experts on the issue.
Only later this spring will Rymdaktiebolaget decide whether Scopex may lift from Esrange.